Painting bought by couple 50 years ago for £100 sells at auction for £185,000

A pensioner couple who bought a Victorian oil painting for less than £100 were said to be 'amazed and delighted' today when it sold at auction for £185,000.

The bustling landscape of Salthouse Dock, Liverpool, by John Atkinson Grimshaw has been owned by a Northumberland couple for 50 years since they bought it from a dealer in London's Burlington Arcade.

Leeds-born Grimshaw painted it in 1892 and it has hung on the wall of the owners' home, gaining hugely in value as his collectability increased.

Today it sold at the Alnwick salerooms of Jim Railton for £185,000.

Mr Railton said the oil on canvas, which attracted world-wide interest, had been estimated to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000.

He said: 'It is a fantastic price and shows what I knew all along - it is a picture of quality with a fantastic provenance and would have dealers and private collectors fighting to own it.

'Such paintings rarely come onto the market and this one literally attracted world-wide interest. The atmosphere in the saleroom was electric.'

Mr Railton said the painting was bought by a London dealer. He said the buyer's premium and VAT would have pushed the successful bidder's final bill to over £200,000.

He said the vendors were a couple in their 70s who did not want to be identified.
But Mr Railton said they were 'amazed and delighted' at today's result.

The painting shows figures and carriages on the wide cobbled road of the dock where sailing ships are moored and atmospheric gas lamps shine on pavements and shops.
Grimshaw, who started his working life as a railway clerk before turning to art, became famous for such atmospheric canvases of industrial areas.


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